Category: blog

Just a note to explain the ‘slowdown’ popup on PS122.org today. Visitors of PS122 are probably already in favor of Net Neutrality in but we wanted to take a moment to explain why it’s so important to Arts orgs PS122 in particular. If large ISPs have their way (Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon in NYC) all content on the internet will be split into tiered levels- paid content receiving priority on their networks over all other content.

For an arts org who rose from obscurity, this tiered access is particularly distasteful. In the 80’s when PS122 was a group of artists squatting in an abandoned school building in a bad neighborhood downtown, we were known as a cultural petri dish: a breeding ground for new artists that often filtered into mainstream culture like HBO shows and Broadway runs. In the 90’s, PS122 built their first website, and the iterations that followed increased our reach to tens of thousands of new audience members reaching far beyond the East Village.

In the past few years while our building is under renovation, PS122.org has been our home base. Our shows are on piers, our events are on rooftops, but the only place to find out what PS122 is doing is on ps122.org and we are happy to be on a level playing field with every other site on the internet. In a tiered system, many arts organizations including PS122 would be unable to afford fees for fast-lane internet, and our home base, like our once-neglected school building in the once-neglected East Village, would be relegated to a dusty corner of the internet.

So please sign the petition, and call lawmakers to keep arts websites vibrant and to give arts groups of the future the same opportunities PS122 had.

Back in 2007, I found a chicken wandering the streets of Greenpoint, presumably escaped from one of the slaughterhouses here and brought her into work at PS122 before dropping her off at a shelter in south Brooklyn.

Then last week I was staring out the window at PS122’s Greenpoint offices and was very surprised to see another chicken wandering in an empty lot looking very lost and out of place. Winnie and I rushed down with an old Crumpler bag to see if we could catch it. At first it flew over Winnie’s head but I was eventually able to grab it after attempting to communicate telepathically about greener pastures ahead. We brought it up to our office and fed it some pieces of a bagel which it ate hurriedly. I called the shelter where I’d dropped off the other chicken years ago but they asked some details about the chicken and from my description deemed that this chicken was a rooster due to the red flap of skin on his head. Roosters apparently are forbidden in the city because of their use in cockfighting rings.

Continue reading “A Second Chicken Comes to PS122”

To get psyched for next month’s Season Launch Party hosted by People Get Ready‘s Steven Reker we are making their single “Physiques” into the PS122 hold music. So give us a ring at 212-477-5829 to hear the track or check out the video below: